Monday, March 5, 2012

Monday Morsels: More Good Food

Morsels:  Tasty bites from the past few days...



Last year about this time I posted this kale salad recipe that I love, and we still eat often, with one minor change (check out the post for the update).  But, we love kale in other forms too--(toddler Kale included).  Sauteed with a lot of minced garlic, olive oil and sesame seeds is another favorite, as well as krispy kale, sometimes called "kale chips".  There are recipes for this everywhere so I won't post it here.  We just use olive oil and sea salt.  I made this batch with coconut oil and that was good too.
Two out of three children here dig it.  



I've also been making a ton of recipes with almond and/or coconut flour.  The stuff is crazy expensive so I just buy the almonds and shredded coconut in bulk and grind them myself in the food processor.  They are still more coarse than the flour that I could buy, but I haven't minded so far.  Most of the recipes have come from elana's pantry.  A friend mentioned the site to me a while ago and I've been printing recipes from her daily.  She has an "easy print" feature that is great, and all of her food is grain free and so far delicious.  I haven't bought her cookbook yet, but I feel like I should at this point.  Our favorites so far are the silver dollar pancakes (I make mine with a mixture of coconut and almond flour) the breakfast bars, and the "cauli-rice" (below with beans and sauteed root veggies).  Good stuff really.


Morsels:  

* We've finally got some snow around here and I don't dare be ungrateful after all the complaining I've done about not having snow--but really this is the time of year we're about ready for mud, you know?
But, we were all happy to have a quiet storm day, and the kids have been hoping for maple candy as featured in "Little House in the Big Woods" all year.  Heat the syrup (with a little bit of butter according to the recipe we followed) until about 6 minutes after boiling--or until it stiffens when dripped onto a cold plate.  Then allow the syrup to cool for a few minutes.   Pour directly on clean snow.  It will harden on contact and become all gooey and caramel like.  Eat a lot of it  immediately.  This was, not surprisingly, so good.  We followed Laura Ingalls Wilder's advice and "[ate] as much as we wanted because maple sugar never hurt anyone". Though we probably ate too much of it given the cost of maple syrup.  The recipe said it should be eaten with something salty to counter the sweetness.  They recommended pickles, but since none of us like pickles we opted for krispy kale.  We don't boil our own syrup, but would like to try a very small scale operation with our abundant red maples some year.

*  I'm not sure why he looks so suspicious here, perhaps he knows he's being used as a model.  He's wearing on of three hoods just off the needles and headed to my nephews and niece in NH, pronto before its too warm for them to need them.  All three were knit in Good Karma Alpaca, from their farm right here in  Belfast.  Its one of my new favorite things to knit with.  I have knit about 8 of these hoods in the past few years and they are perfect for keeping necks and cheeks warm and dry in the snow.  Wylie and Juni still wear theirs from three years ago.  I made up the pattern, and I'm sure you could too.  But, if you want my notes just send me a comment and I'll email them to you.  The Good Karma Farm is holding a photo contest featuring knit-wear in their yarn.  I've got a plan for some really funny pictures of all of the hoods/hats knit up this winter.  (Helen has the details for the contest in her shop--or stop by the farm).  

    Snow Dog

* I love photo's like this when foreheads and ears are covered and I can see how alike all my kids look.

                      barn in snow
*  Despite the snow (which is not at all unusual for March in Maine) we can tell spring is coming.  The late afternoon light has such a different quality to it.  I'll be going about my business and then be suddenly struck by the change in focus and the increasing angle of the rays.  Never mind the later day light (change your clocks next weekend!)


                      Afternoon sun
   dinner prep with sunlight

Happy Monday.

1 comment:

  1. i love your rocking chair! We live on completely the other side of the country and have no snow and not nearly as much sunlight as you're getting in this blog post. I'm envious of both!

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